The AbleKane legacy - Deploying Reason
It could be mere coincidence, but almost six months after leaving the Multinational Security Transition Command - Iraq in Baghdad, I noticed the following quote in the command publication The Advisor at the bottom of page 2.
“The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evils wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.” — Ayn Rand (1905 - 1982)
I have not yet received a response back to my query about who selected the quote, but I'd like to think that all the Ayn Rand books and Objectivist literature I gathered together there has had some influence. Thanks to donations from Rob Begley, Ed Cline and many others, the pro-liberty message seems to be sustaining itself in the Green Zone.
For me this represents a small but satisfying confirmation of the benefits of ongoing efforts to get Objectivist literature in front of people so that they can discover it.
To that end Ed Thompson (and the Ayn Rand Institute) has donated some books to me here in Pearl Harbor and I have been placing them with ships heading out for deployment. I call it the "Deploying Reason" plan. My hope is that Sailors cooped up on a ship or submarine for three to six months will check out the books from ships library and perhaps even discuss the ideas with their shipmates. I've also "recycled" some of my own books this way.
When I have deployed it was common to see Sailors with paperback books stuck in their back pockets. The benefit of this is that when you get stuck on a seemingly endless training drill, or waiting in line for chow, or waiting to see the Doc/dentist, you can while away the wait by reading. On a ship, with only a few hundred feet to your left or right a good book can be quite a boon.
The Deploying Reason plan is my own way of helping improve the intellectual climate of my workplace (the military) and also a great way to encourage my shipmates to share my interest in Ayn Rand and Objectivism.
JK
“The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evils wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.” — Ayn Rand (1905 - 1982)
I have not yet received a response back to my query about who selected the quote, but I'd like to think that all the Ayn Rand books and Objectivist literature I gathered together there has had some influence. Thanks to donations from Rob Begley, Ed Cline and many others, the pro-liberty message seems to be sustaining itself in the Green Zone.
For me this represents a small but satisfying confirmation of the benefits of ongoing efforts to get Objectivist literature in front of people so that they can discover it.
To that end Ed Thompson (and the Ayn Rand Institute) has donated some books to me here in Pearl Harbor and I have been placing them with ships heading out for deployment. I call it the "Deploying Reason" plan. My hope is that Sailors cooped up on a ship or submarine for three to six months will check out the books from ships library and perhaps even discuss the ideas with their shipmates. I've also "recycled" some of my own books this way.
When I have deployed it was common to see Sailors with paperback books stuck in their back pockets. The benefit of this is that when you get stuck on a seemingly endless training drill, or waiting in line for chow, or waiting to see the Doc/dentist, you can while away the wait by reading. On a ship, with only a few hundred feet to your left or right a good book can be quite a boon.
The Deploying Reason plan is my own way of helping improve the intellectual climate of my workplace (the military) and also a great way to encourage my shipmates to share my interest in Ayn Rand and Objectivism.
JK
posted by Joe at Wednesday, June 01, 2005
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